 | | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 The current work focused on using nerve growth factor in eye drops to treat dozens of rats in whom glaucoma was induced.
Testing two different amounts of nerve growth factor, the team documented a significant drop in the rate of retinal cell death, particularly with the higher dose.
The authors then tested the nerve growth factor eye drops on three patients with advanced glaucoma, each of whom had suffered significant visual deterioration.
Text Continues Below
A battery of eye function tests conducted before treatment with nerve growth factor eye drops, three months after treatment began and three months post-treatment demonstrated that the vision of two of the patients actually improved, while the vision of the third patient stabilized following treatment.
Furthermore, the observed improvements in visual field, optic nerve function, contrast sensitivity and visual acuity remained in place 18 months after the first eye drops were administered, the researchers reported.
Despite the encouraging results, Bonini cautioned that the novel nerve growth factor approach to halting glaucoma disease will not be available to consumers in the immediate future.
"These impressive findings are promising, but still far from any broad clinical application, since nerve growth factor is not currently available for clinical use," said Bonini. "And these pilot clinical results should be confirmed in large clinical trials.
But the study team suggested that the findings could theoretically pave the way for new options in treating eye disease and a range of other neurodegenerative diseases.
Rando Allikmets, a professor of ophthalmology, pathology and cell biology at Columbia University in New York City, applauded the research team for its effort to develop a better treatment for glaucoma.
"The science concerning glaucoma is very much less clear than, say, that regarding age-related macular degeneration," he said. "So it is true that there are some treatments for glaucoma, and they are sometimes effective at slowing down or delaying the progress of the disease," Allikmets noted.
"But that's it. The available drugs don't get at the actual disease," he added. "So it's not clear if this work will hold up under further study, but if these researchers were able to actually reverse some of the actual vision loss due to glaucoma that would be a very strong statement."
More information
For additional information and resources on glaucoma, visit the Glaucoma Research Foundation.
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2
|
.gif)
